Sundodgers 2011

Last November I went to Burlington, WA and played in the Sundodgers ultimate frisbee tournament with the UBC Men’s team. It was an eye opening experience since I was playing against good teams, with many players having participated in the CUC and a couple going to represent Canada at the World Championships. The weather was terrible the long weekend, it was raining and very cold the entire time. I was hoping we would get away from the Vancouver weather, but we didn’t travel south enough.

On Saturday, we had to wake up at 7 and get on the field early which was fine since I’m used to waking up early after 4 years at UBC. I had a free breakfast meal at McDonald’s thanks to credit card roulette with our group. We played four games and won only one of them. I wasn’t happy at all with my defense since on the very first 3 points I was on, I got beat deep on huck plays which rarely happens to me. Fortunately that was the last time it happened. I don’t know why the other team didn’t keep running those plays, but I stayed closer to my check after those defensive breakdowns. Another first for me was the second game. I’m still amazed, but everyone on the other team was dressed nicely and by that I mean they were wearing cardigans, dress shirts, khakis etc… In the rainfall, they were still diving for discs on the muddy fields. Hands down they were and will be the best dressed team I have ever played against. After 2 more games (much of which I have forgotten), we went back to our hotels, cold as fuck and all our clothes muddy.

After getting cleaned up, we had dinner at Olive Garden (credit card roulette would have been interesting with our group of 20). Being a rookie, I had to make the reservations, but the restaurant doesn’t accept reservations on Saturdays. They still asked for a name so I told them to write down Genghis Khan (apparently the waitress didn’t get the joke). We had to wait for 30 minutes for a table after arriving and that sucked cause I couldn’t drink at the bar to pass time since I’m still underage in the states.

On Sunday, we woke up at 7 again to play 2 games. Everyone was late cause of all the drinking the previous night and no one touched a frisbee until the other team pulled to us. It wasn’t a surprise that the other team quickly built an 8-point lead although we eventually got break points and lost the game only by 3 points. The second game, although meaningless, was a one-sided affair with us dominating with our zone defense. We had a third game, but had to wait for 2 hours. No one wanted to wait so we all went our own ways home. My group went to have lunch at Wendy’s (another free meal for me thanks to credit card roulette) then went to Nike so I could get new cleats and socks. Didn’t know this until a week later, but the UBC Women’s teams placed 1st and 2nd in the tournament!

Overall the tournament was fun and I learned a lot. One thing that occurred to me is whether I should be marking the tallest person on the other team and if that could relieve some pressure off my teammates. That happened a few times during the tournament accidentally when I ended up marking the tallest person after turnovers against a zone defense. My rationale is that it’s not going to make much of a difference whether I’m marking a 5’10” or 6’5” person in terms of having to fight sky battles. However, it may make a bigger difference if a 5’10” person is marking someone his height or 6’5”. FYI I have scored a callahan while marking a 6′, 200lb man and I have marked a 7′ player once so I can take on anyone hehe.